Newcastle United Women were beaten by Atletico Madrid Femenino at St James' Park as part of the Sela Weekender
Newcastle United's Jordan Nobbs (left), Newcastle United's Deanna Cooper and Atletico Madrid's Sheila Guijarro (right) battle for the ball during a Sela Cup women's match at St. James' Park
Newcastle United Women suffered their first ever St James' Park defeat on Saturday afternoon, losing 2-0 to Atletico Madrid Femenino as part of the Sela Weekender on Tyneside.
This was always going to be a supremely tough task for Becky Langley's side, who emerged victorious against AC Milan's women's side in this fixture 12 months ago.
But Atletico Madrid's female outfit have finished third behind Real Madrid and Barcelona in Liga F - the women's equivalent of La Liga - in the last two seasons and have not finished outside of the top four since before Covid-19 raged around the world.
Victor Martin's team are a well-drilled, experienced, Women's Champions League regular and showed their class as they took the lead and never looked back, despite being reduced to 10 players in the early stages of the second-half.
The first goal of the game came inside 10 minutes as Vilda Boe Risa picked the ball up deep, drove towards goal relatively unchallenged and fired beyond Claudia Moan, who failed to keep a fairly routine stop from hitting the back of the net.
Atletico always looked the most likely to find the second goal and did just that when Macarena Portales headed home from close range on the stroke of the interval.
The second-half started with a touch of drama and a bit of a lifeline for the home side. As summer signing Molly Pike ran through on goal, she attempted an audacious lob from distance as substitute Atletico goalkeeper Lola Gallardo charged towards her.
Pike's effort was straight at the stopper, who accidentally handled the ball outside the area, reducing her side to 10-women.
Given Gallardo had replaced starting goalkeeper Patricia Larque at the interval, the Spanish side had no recognised replacement on the bench to enter the fray.
As such, Silvia Lloris, standing at just 5 ft 5 inches, was tasked with playing in between the sticks for the final half an hour or so.
Newcastle failed to really test the defender-turned-goalkeeper in the closing stages, with just the one shot on target while enjoying a numerical advantage in terms of bodies on the pitch.
The fixture may not have ended in a positive result but for the fans in attendance there was at least the opportunity to cast an eye over some new signings.
Langley handed starts to newcomers Pike, Aoife Mannion and decorated England legend, Jordan Nobbs.
The last-named of the trio is the most interesting of the summer purchases, given the wealth of experience the Arsenal hero will bring to this second-tier side.
Nobbs won WSL titles with the Gunners in 2011, 2012 and 2019, as well as winning the division's Players' Player of the Year award in 2017. The midfielder has also notched a whopping 71 caps in an England shirt.
"It is just amazing to come home again," the Stockon-on-Tees-born star said recently. "I came here last week to have a look around and that feeling I got from the family of the north east, it is a feeling I can't explain.
"The goal is to get promoted and push women's football in the North East as a whole - and I want to be a part of that."
There was no record-breaking crowd watching on this time around for the women's side but Newcastle United men's coaches Jason Tindall, Simon Weatherstone and Stephen Purches took their places in the pitchside press box to watch chunks of the match as they waited for the main event at 4pm.
Attention now turns to the start of the Women's Super League 2 season for the Magpies, with Langley taking her side to newly-promoted Nottingham Forest before hosting Sheffield United at the club's new home for 2025/26 - the Gateshead International Stadium.